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The Integrated Management
Plan for the Fox River Watershed in Illinois
includes the following strategy under the Water Quality Action Area:
Develop strategies to
preserve and enhance ground and surface water quality
and quantity, in
order to provide for adequate drinking water supplies
and natural habitat
within the Fox River Watershed. |
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To this end, FREP water
quality activities will focus on the following:
● Define, expand and
integrate data collection and research on Fox River water quality and
quantity by municipalities, community organizations and state
agencies.
● All streams achieve B or
better rating (Index of Biotic Integrity)
● Identify, protect and
manage surface and groundwater, educate public about their importance
and what impacts groundwater
● Preserve and enhance
drinking water supplies from surface and groundwater sources
● Identify funding and
sources of support |
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FREP's Strategic Plan for 2002-05 charges
the Water Resources Committee to: |
Develop a basin-wide water resource plan
(through the following actions):
A. Partner with other groups or
agencies presently working on water resource issues.
B. Develop a Watershed Implementation Plan (WIP) for the entire
watershed.
C. Develop water
budget (quantity).
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Sierra Club's Water Testing Data for the Fox
River |
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Water Quality Fact Sheets |
Two internships, funded by an IEPA 319 grant, have been created to inventory
a number of streams in the Fox River Watershed this summer. Lori Hron of
Naperville, a senior environmental science major at Purdue University, and
Mark Meyer of Lombard, a senior geography and environmental science major at
Augustana College, have been chosen to fill these positions. It is hoped
that the end result of their work will be a list of possible sites to
restore/preserve with future state/federal money, as well as data to assist
subwatershed groups in developing a Watershed Implementation Plan (WIP). The
Northeastern Illinois Planning Commission (NIPC) has been given the task of
moving the WIP forward and, along with FREP’s Water Quality Committee, is
coordinating this stream inventory project.
Lori and Mark will be looking at streambank and
stream bed condition (erosion, vegetation), riparian land use, outfalls,
turbidity, sinuosity, and many other attributes. They will be using a GPS
(geographical positioning system) to denote the location of important
features (e.g., severe bank erosion, point sources) and will document them
using a digital camera as well. A database of information will be developed.
Following a prioritized list of streams developed by the FREP Water Quality
Committee, it is hoped that more than 100 miles can be inventoried this
summer. Blackberry, Nippersink, Boone, and Poplar Creeks are among this
summer’s inventory goals.
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Interns conduct stream inventory during Summer 2002

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